Mumbai: Driver who raped domestic help in Versova arrested

A 22-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly raping the 17-year-old, who later delivered a child and threw it out of a building fearing societal shaming; survivor had told cops he had worked for her employer for 15 days

The driver who allegedly raped a minor domestic help in Versova, who delivered a baby boy and threw it off a building, has been arrested. Versova police traced the man with the help of his mobile phone.

mid-day had reported about the horrifying case in which the newborn boy had been strangled to death and thrown out from a posh residential building in Versova, Andheri (West). Police had arrested the baby’s mother, a 17-year-old girl, for the murder.

mid-day’s reports on the incident

The minor had killed her own baby for fear of being ostracised and ridiculed by society. She had also told the police she had been raped by her employers’ driver, who had worked with them for only 15 days before quitting. Due to this, she didn’t even know the man’s name.

In her statement, the girl had also said the man had tied her up to a bed when her employers were not at home, and raped her several times. Police officers said they then questioned the employers, who gave them the address and phone number of 22-year-old Jai Singh, who had worked with them nine months ago.

Police found that Singh’s family lived in Mumbai, but he had gone home to his wife who lived in a village in Uttar Pradesh. Cops then traced Singh’s location with the help of his mobile phone, and went to UP to arrest him. “We have arrested Singh on the charge of rape,” said Ravindranath Pawar, senior police inspector, Versova police station.

Police also said that since the survivor was young and from a remote village, she didn’t even know the meaning of rape and never spoke of the sexual assault with her employers, fearing they would send her home. Police said the girl had requested the elderly couple she worked for if she could rest in their sixth-floor flat. On being assured she would look after the place, the couple acquiesced.

Here, the girl delivered a baby boy and managed to cut the umbilical cord. However, she got scared and couldn’t grasp what to do next. In her agitated state she strangled the child to death before chucking him out of the window.

The incidentVersova police received a call on the night of January 17 that the body of a newborn was lying outside Atlantis building in Versova. Cops first went to a nearby maternity hospital, but were told no woman had delivered in the last few days. When police began questioning all residents, they found the minor girl bleeding in the sixth floor apartment, and took her to Cooper Hospital. Reports confirmed that she had delivered the child.